Secrets Revealed Pt. II

Passing the sign was a kind of breakthrough for me. Ideas started to come together. By the time we reached home a few hours later, I had a plan. I put the plan into action the very next day.

I tried searching for Patrice's name on the Internet but found too many hits. Not knowing where she was living made the puzzle almost impossible to solve. Almost. I remembered that she had lived in Shreveport. Digging through my college notes in the attic, I finally found an address and phone number. I only hoped her parents were still alive and hadn't moved in the intervening years. With a trembling hand, I dialed the phone number. It rang, then again and again.

"Hello?" a woman's voice said.

It wasn't Patrice's voice. I hoped it was her mother. I explained that I was trying to find an old friend from college. The woman, who told me she was in fact Patrice's mother, was pleased that I was trying to find Patrice. I told her we had been roommates and had lost touch. She was very helpful, giving me her address and phone number in Dayton, Ohio. I wanted to pump the woman for more information but I didn't want to call too much attention to my quest. If Patrice didn't want to see me (which was very likely), I didn't want her to know I was looking. It was probably an invasion of her privacy, but I was driven by the need to see her, to talk to her and see how her life turned out—after I took Tim away from her.

I didn't call her. I probably should have, that would have been the easy thing to do, but I didn't. I used my Internet skills instead to learn everything about her that I could. As I progressed in my quest, Tim took an interest.

One night after work, at an apparent dead end, I sighed loudly.

"Not going well?" he asked from beside me as he watched television.

"I think I've learned all I can about her from the Internet," I explained, looking at my notebook screen again. "There just isn't much here."

Tim got up and stood behind the sofa, putting his strong hands on my shoulders and rubbing as he looked at the computer screen.

"You have her address, right?" he inquired.

"Yes, but that only tells me she lives in Dayton."

Tim bent down closer to me, a sly grin on his face. "It can tell you a lot more, if you only know how to ask the right questions."

He had my attention now.

"Go to Google Earth and put in the address. You can get an aerial photograph of her neighborhood."

"So? It's not likely she was out in the yard waving at the airplane when the picture was taken," I retorted. I was doubting this would lead anywhere.

Tim kept smiling. "Seeing the houses around hers will tell you the kind of neighborhood it is. The lifestyle, the income levels of her neighbors. Are there swing sets in her backyard? Bicycles in the driveway? Does she have children? How many cars in the driveway? Is she married?"

"You are devious," I said, now smiling along with him. "That's good."

I did as he suggested. He kissed my neck as I typed and, in a few minutes, we were studying an image of a quiet neighborhood across the street from a large park. Children played in that park, played baseball by the look of it.

She lived in a nice residential area, but the picture didn't show any cars and the detail wasn't quite good enough to show toys or play sets in the backyards.

"The picture must have been taken in the middle of the day," Tim said. When I looked at him, he explained, "That's why there are no cars in the driveways. Better lighting for the picture, though. It shows more detail."

"How do you know all this?" I asked, a question I often posed to him.

"I read a lot," he answered, his stock answer.

He came around to sit next to me and studied the picture, deep in thought.

"How much do you want to know?" he asked as he turned to face me.

"Tim, you know the answer to that," I said.

He nodded. "Then it's time for a road trip."

"You mean ..." I started to say.

"I mean, the only way you are going to get the answers to your questions is to go there and talk to her. Face to face."

His suggestion caught me off guard. Could I face her after all these years? Would she even talk to me?

"What about Laura?" I asked, stalling.

"She can stay with my sister for a few days. We'll drop off Laura on the way and drive up there to visit Patrice."

Tim's words hung in the air. I wanted to act on it, but did I dare? What if she wasn't home? What if she slammed the door in my face?

Tim knew me too well. He could look at my face and know the internal battle I was having with myself.

"What if you have that chat with her that you should have had years ago and all of your fears turn out to be unfounded?" he asked.

I started to say something but stopped and thought about what he had said. I ended up laughing.

"Okay, let's do it," I said.

Once the decision was made, I started feeling better about it. We had a new plan.

It took a few weeks to work everything out with Tim's sister and arrange for both of us to take a few days off work. We would drive to Memphis and leave Laura with Tim's sister. On the next day, we would drive to Dayton to look for Patrice. I really appreciated Tim putting up with this for me. I'd make sure I showed him in bed how much I loved him.

The drive to Memphis was uneventful. Laura was used to long car trips and looked forward to visiting Aunt Sharon and Uncle Stan. The next day, a Friday, Tim and I kissed Laura goodbye and drove up to Dayton.

Leaving Kentucky behind us, we passed through Cincinnati on our way north. Tim pointed out the Great American Ballpark that was the home of the Cincinnati Reds and I tried to sound interested for his sake. As we entered Dayton, I had my turn to be interested when we saw the Dayton Mall just as we passed I-675. We had reservations at the Doubletree on South Ludlow downtown. We checked in and relaxed from the long drive. After a shared shower and dinner, we settled in for a night of just the two of us.

Though I did my best to make it good for Tim, I didn't enjoy myself as much as I thought I would. Worries of what the next day might bring kept me feeling anxious even as I held onto my husband and made love to him with all my might.

To be concluded in Part III – The Truth

This story is Copyright (c) 2006 by Strickland83. All rights reserved.